


October Grimm

by cinip



Category: RWBY
Genre: Campfires, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 18:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinip/pseuds/cinip
Summary: "Some say it purposefully leaves a witness so that people can hear its tale, others say it only kills a certain amount of people per night. But one thing all the stories have in common, are that people disappear in pairs, and that the Grimm only shows up in October,” said Yang, leaning closer and closer to the fire.Teams RWBY and JNPR decided to have a campfire before the weather got too cold, and thus ended up camping out on the very last day of September.





	1. Just A Normal Camping Trip

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosesscythes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesscythes/gifts).



The crisp leaves filled the air in an array of oranges and yellows, swirling slightly before they fell onto the ground. The sky was covered in a blanket of gray clouds, yet there wasn’t a raindrop in sight. It was cold, but not too cold, just enough to warrant a sweater. Fall had arrived. 

“I’m so pumped that it’s October!” exclaimed Ruby, helping Pyrrha set up the tent. Her cheery attitude was great, but no so much for setting up the tent. Which, if it had not been for Pyrrha’s ferrokinesis, would have fallen to the ground at least six times by this point. She bounced up and down, her eyes darting everywhere towards the falling leaves. 

“Why, because of your birthday?” asked Weiss nonchalantly, sitting down in a folding chair she had brought. Unlike everyone else on the camping trip, she had been pestering them about the dangers of Grimm the entire way out there, to the point where she had been self designated “Grimm Watcher”. Jaune tried to convince everyone that this was her excuse for not helping, but Weiss kept retorting with her explanation that keeping a lookout was the most important job. He couldn’t argue that not getting eaten by Grimm was less important than putting up the tent four minutes faster. 

“No,” said Ruby, actually helping with the tent for once. 

“Halloween?” chimed in Blake, who was helping Yang set up the fire. Neither of them were having much luck, before Weiss rolled her eyes and offered to set it on fire with Myrtenaster. Yang argued that it wasn’t authentic enough and returned to attempting to light a fire. 

“Kind of? But what I’m most excited for, is Fall!”

And with that, Ruby knocked over the tent. Pyrrha sighed with defeat, then relief, since Ruby decided to take a break.

“Pumpkins, flannel, orange, cinnamon-,” listed off Nora. Ruby grabbed her hands as she bounced up and down. 

“See! You get me! This is the Fall spirit!” exclaimed Ruby. “I can’t wait for sweaters, and leaves changing color, and oh! I just really really like it.”

“I’d really really like it if you helped me move these bags behind the tent,” said Jaune, who felt like his back was going to break after trying to lift one. “Seriously Pyrrha, what’s in these.” Pyrrha nervously looked over to make sure Jaune wasn’t going to take a peek inside. 

“Oh, just my stuff,” she said inconspicuously. Jaune shrugged and smiled once he noticed Ruby was helping him move one of the bags.

“The sooner we put up the campsite the sooner we can eat!” exclaimed Yang. “It’s already getting dark, so I think we should hurry up.”

“You should hurry up with the fire-”

“I’m trying!” 

Ruby laughed as her sister was scolded once again for not knowing how to start a fire. She looked over to Jaune to see if he found it funny too, and felt a bit of relief once she noticed the smirk on his face. His straw colored hair was so fitting for the season, as it complemented the orange leaves nicely.

“Ruby!” he complained, snapping her out of her gaze. Ruby looked down and realized she had dropped her end of the bag while staring at him. 

“Whoops, sorry!” she said, flustered, as she picked the bag again, still a bit distracted as they set it behind the tent. “I’m just glad exams are over, I’ve been studying for them for so long, and I think my mind’s just gone to mush afterwards.”

“Tell me about it,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I feel like I had to use my last two brain cells to try to stay awake in Professor Port’s lecture for the past week.” Ruby giggled. Professor Port always went on the worst tangents during class. If it was the slightest bit related to the lecture, he included it. 

“I’m sure you did….decent,” said Ruby, teasing him slightly as she pushed her elbow softly into his stomach. Jaune pouted and tilted his head down in defeat. 

“Honestly, let’s just try to enjoy ourselves out here before results come back,” said Jaune.

“I can agree to that,” said Ruby, giving him a big smile. 

“Hey lovebirds, go help Yang with the fire before I leave and go home,” joked Blake.

“We’re not lovebirds” shouted Ruby embarrassingly, as Yang scoffed “I don’t need help! I almost have it!” She made brief eye contact with Jaune, who quickly looked away. 

“I’m just kidding, I needed something to get your attention,” teased Blake. Ruby let out a sigh of relief. 

“Oh, okay,” she said, relieved that her platonic conversation with him hadn’t turned into anything weird. Jaune was her friend, and a good one, at that. He was one of the first friends she had made at Beacon, and she was thankful for that. Unlike her teammates, he provided a role none of them could fill, since they were generally all more responsible than she was. Sometimes it was fun just to joke around without being nagged to study, or without the need to explain all the references she threw into her jokes. Jaune had a really similar sense of humor. And yeah, maybe he was a little bit cute, with his flippy hair and big blue eyes and absolutely adorable-

Okay maybe “maybe” was the wrong word. But even if she did feel that way, it was just a small crush, at best. Might as well leave it there. 


	2. Spooky Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I wouldn’t stray alone at night, lest you run into the Grimm of the Undead,” said Yang nonchalantly, narrowing her eyes as the fire illuminated her face from beneath.
> 
> “Grimm of the Undead? Do Grimm even live? Or die? Or-”
> 
> “Weiss, it’s just a title,” said Blake, perking her ears up to listen to what Yang had to say.

“Let’s tell spooky stories!” exclaimed Nora. “The ones that make your skin crawl with anticipation, and then bang! The cliffhanger leaves you scared, wanting more and less at the same time.”

“I’m not really a fan of scary stories, I don’t seem to get them,” said Jaune. Ruby looked at him, perplexed. 

“Why not?” she asked. He shrugged. 

“I don’t find them interesting-”

“That’s because he’s a scaredy cat,” interjected Weiss. 

“Not true, Ice Queen!” he whined as Ruby smirked at the thought of Jaune being deathly afraid of scary stories. It  _ did _ suit his personality. 

“What if we did a test of courage?” asked Ren, locking eyes with Yang, who seemed very calm and prepared. She set down her smore and leaned in closer towards the fire.

“I wouldn’t stray alone at night, lest you run into the Grimm of the Undead,” said Yang nonchalantly, narrowing her eyes as the fire illuminated her face from beneath. 

“Grimm of the Undead? Do Grimm even live? Or die? Or-”

“Weiss, it’s just a title,” said Blake, perking her ears up to listen to what Yang had to say. 

“I’ve never heard of this before,” said Ren casually as he roasted his marshmallow over the fire into a perfect golden brown shade. Nora, on the other hand, had stuck her marshmallow so far into the fire that the whole thing was burnt to the crisp. She claimed she liked them better that way, and no one had the will to argue with her. 

“That’s because if you had, you’d probably go looking for it,” said Yang. “Which you should  _ absolutely _ not do. Even Ozpin has a thing against it.”

“Wait, so it’s not just a myth?” asked Pyrrha, now fully paying attention. Yang nodded. 

“So I wanted to see how flexible the dress code here was so I actually read the student handbook, and I got bored and read the rest of it. It’s definitely a real thing,” said Yang, pulling it out of her bag and waving it around a bit. 

“Why do you have this with you?” asked Weiss. Yang shrugged as she put it away. 

“Never know when you’re going to need it,” she said, zipping up her bag and stashing it behind the log she was sitting on. “Now, where was I.”

“You were just about to tell us the about the Grimm,” said Ruby, who was fighting with Jaune over who got the blanket, since she forgot to bring her own. Jaune finally rescinded his grip, and Ruby had snatched it up for herself. He looked over at her and made a face so sad that Ruby hesitantly gave him half of his own blanket for the two of them to share. Yang cracked her knuckles and began speaking again, this time, lowering her voice so everyone had to lean in to hear what she had to say over the soft crackle of the fire. 

“I’d preface this tale with “legend has it”, except for the fact that everything we know about the Grimm of the Undead comes from a handful of witnesses. Some say it purposefully leaves a witness so that people can hear its tale, others say it only kills a certain amount of people per night. But one thing all the stories have in common, are that people disappear in pairs, and that the Grimm only shows up in October,” said Yang, leaning closer and closer to the fire. 

“So what exactly does this Grimm even do? Doesn’t seem so scary to me,” said Jaune, crossing his arms. 

“I said, it kills people,” said Yang, bluntly. Everyone turned to face her, looking for more. 

“No I meant, it’s not a very good scary story unless there’s actually, you know, a story?” asked Jaune. Everyone then turned to look to him, slightly disappointed that he had killed the mood. “What, it’s not enough just to be slightly scared at the concept of a Grimm-” Yang cut him off before he could say anything else. 

“Well well well, would you look at that, I  _ do _ have a story,” said Yang, pulling out her student handbook. She flipped to a page, looked down at it for a minute, and then began speaking again. 

“October 13, three students were coming home from an away mission, when suddenly they heard some rustling in the corn stalks. They decided to check it out, not knowing what to expect. They were fairly decent students, so they figured if it were any Grimm, they could take it on. Little did they know, it was not any ordinary Grimm. 

As they approached it, the corn stopped rustling. This should have been their first indication that something was very wrong, for Grimm don’t usually ambush their prey. But this is not a usual Grimm. According to the one surviving source, the Grimm moved in an unpredictable manner, chasing them through the corn with no hesitation. Physical attacks seemed to pass right through it, yet it seemed to swallow the corn whole in its path. 

Then, the unthinkable started to happen. Like quicksand, victims sank into the very depths of the Grimm’s undefined body as it enveloped them, never to see the light of day again. Once enveloped by the Grimm, the victim’s physical body was gone. Until…” Yang’s voice trailed off as everyone stared at her in silence. 

“Why is it called Grimm of the Undead?” asked Weiss, who looked visibly shaken by the fact that her already pale face was even paler. Yang tilted her head so only her jaw was illuminated by the light. 

“Because once you’ve been eaten by the Grimm, it spits out a copy of you in Grimm form, kind of like a zombie to do it’s bidding,” she said, as if it were no big deal. 

“That was one weird handbook,” said Ren. “I shouldn’t have thrown mine out.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Blake with a wink. Everyone looked the slightest bit shook, either curled up in a ball on the log or sitting on the very edge, completely alert. Everyone except for Ruby. 

“Guys, you know what we should do?” asked Ruby. 

“No, we’re not going after that Grimm,” said Pyrrha. “You heard what Yang said, even Ozpin forbids it.” Ruby pouted. 

“But there’s 8 of us! In Yang’s story, there were only three, and-”

“They said physical attacks didn’t work, do you even have a plan for when you go out there?” asked Blake. Ruby crossed her arms. Blake was right. She didn’t have a plan. But what this  _ did _ mean, was once she  _ did _ have a plan, then it would be the perfect time to strike. Now all she needed to do was come up with a plan. 

 


End file.
